Maine HOA Laws: What Homeowners Need to Know in 2026
Maine’s Condominium Act (33 M.R.S. chapter 31) governs condos created since January 1, 1983, and a short list of its sections reaches older ones. A non-condo subdivision HOA falls outside both condo chapters and answers to its recorded documents. A condo lien covers fines and is foreclosed like a mortgage.
Chapter 31, chapter 10, or neither
The Condominium Act took effect on January 1, 1983 (§1601-116). Under §1601-102, where your building lands depends on its birth year and on what the owners have done since:
| Community | Law that applies |
|---|---|
| Condominium created in Maine after January 1, 1983 | All of chapter 31; the old Unit Ownership Act (§§560–587) does not apply |
| Pre-1983 condominium whose owners amended its instruments to submit to chapter 31 | All of chapter 31 |
| Pre-1983 condominium that never opted in | Its own instruments, the Unit Ownership Act if the property was submitted to chapter 10, and these chapter 31 sections: 1601-105, 1601-106, 1601-107, 1602-103, 1602-104, 1603-102(a)(1)–(6) and (11)–(16), 1603-111, 1603-116, 1603-118, 1604-108, 1604-116, plus 1601-103 definitions where needed. They reach only events after the 1983 date and do not invalidate declarations, bylaws, floor plans, surveys or rules that existed on it. |
| Subdivision of separately owned lots with an association, not a condominium | Neither chapter: §1601-102 speaks only of condominiums, and chapter 10 applies “only to property” submitted to it by a recorded declaration (§562) |
Resolve 2025, chapter 167 (LD 760) created a commission to “consider whether the adoption of the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act or other laws may be suitable for the State” for condominium and noncondominium associations, with a report due by December 1, 2026; the resolve authorizes no meetings unless outside funding arrived within 30 days after it took effect on July 29, 2026.
Money: the chapter 31 lien
A condo association’s lien under §1603-116 attaches to the unit for any assessment, and for any fine, from the moment it falls due. Unless the declaration says otherwise, late charges, fees, fines and interest count as assessments. Recording the declaration perfects the lien, and it “may be foreclosed in like manner as a mortgage on real estate.”
Three things outrank it: liens recorded before the declaration; a first mortgage, whether recorded before or after the delinquency; and real estate taxes and other governmental charges. Mechanics’ liens keep their own priority. Maine gives condo associations no six-month jump ahead of the first mortgage.
In condos fully under chapter 31, past-due assessments carry interest at a rate the association sets, capped at 18% a year (§1603-115(b)). And the lien dies unless enforcement starts within 6 years after the full amount comes due. The prevailing side in a lien suit recovers costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Fines need a process first. Section 1603-102(a)(11) lets the association, subject to its declaration, levy “reasonable fines” only “after notice and an opportunity to be heard.” The statute sets no dollar ceiling.
Board meetings and the books in a Maine condo
In condos fully under chapter 31, owners meet at least yearly; notice goes out no fewer than 10 and no more than 60 days ahead, with the agenda, including the general nature of any proposed amendment to the declaration or bylaws, any budget change and any proposal to remove a director or officer (§1603-108). Owners may attend executive board meetings under reasonable rules. Closed executive sessions are allowed only for the five purposes the section lists, and no final vote may be taken in one.
The records rule reaches pre-1983 condos as well. Under §1603-118 the association keeps receipts and expenditures for 6 years, financial statements and tax returns for 3 years, and ballots and proxies for one year after the vote. Any owner may examine and copy retained records on 10 days’ written notice identifying them. The association may withhold records to the extent they concern:
- personnel, salary and medical records of specific individuals;
- contracts, leases and other deals currently being negotiated;
- existing or potential litigation, mediation, arbitration or administrative proceedings;
- existing or potential proceedings before a governmental tribunal to enforce the declaration, bylaws or rules;
- attorney-client or work-product communications;
- information whose disclosure would violate other law;
- executive session records;
- other owners’ unit files.
Copies and supervised inspection can cost a reasonable fee; compiling or synthesizing information is not the association’s job.
Selling a unit: the §1604-108 certificate
Before the contract is signed, the seller of a chapter 31 unit hands the buyer the declaration (without plats and plans), bylaws, rules, and a current certificate from the association (§1604-108). The certificate covers: any right of first refusal or other resale restraint; the monthly assessment and anything the seller owes now; other fees; anticipated capital expenditures; reserves and any earmarks; the latest balance sheet and income statement; the current budget; unsatisfied judgments and pending suits against the association; insurance for owners; whether the board knows of alterations that violate the declaration; whether it knows of health or building code violations; and any leasehold term.
The association must produce it within 10 days after the seller asks and pays its reasonable fee; the statute names no fee cap. A buyer never owes more in unpaid assessments than the certificate shows. The buyer may void the contract until the certificate has been provided and for 5 days after that, or until conveyance, whichever comes first.
No certificate is needed when a public offering statement is required instead, or for the six dispositions in §1604-101(b): gifts, court-ordered sales, sales by a government, foreclosures and deeds in lieu, sales to a real estate dealer who will resell, and contracts the buyer can cancel at any time without penalty.
Three Maine statutes that override association documents
Solar. Section 1423 binds homeowners, unit owners and condominium associations alike, but only instruments adopted or created after September 30, 2009. Such an instrument may not bar you from a solar collector or a clothes-drying device on residential property you own, or a clothes-drying device on property you rent. It may bar them on property held in common with third parties or on condo common elements, and it may impose restrictions needed to protect public safety, buildings, shorelands, or historic or aesthetic values where an alternative of reasonably comparable cost and convenience exists.
Low-impact landscaping. Since PL 2023, chapter 376, §1451 stops a condominium, or residential property whose common portion the owners hold in undivided shares, from unreasonably limiting pollinator gardens, rain gardens or low-water plantings on ground you use exclusively, as long as you tend them. Requiring turf grass counts as unreasonable. Reasonable design guidelines on type, number and location survive, and historic properties listed on or eligible for the National Register are exempt.
EV chargers. From January 1, 2026, §576-A (PL 2025, chapter 280) voids declaration or bylaw clauses that ban or unreasonably restrict a charger in a unit parking space or limited common element parking space. The board acknowledges an application within 30 days and decides in writing within 60, or it is deemed approved unless the board reasonably asked for more information. The owner pays for installation and power and shows insurance within 14 days of approval. It sits in chapter 10, which §562 applies only to property submitted to that chapter, and §1601-102(b) says sections 560 through 587 do not apply to condominiums created after January 1, 1983 or amended to come under chapter 31; §576-A does not say whether it reaches those condominiums.
Questions Maine owners ask
Does the Condominium Act cover my 1970s condo?
Only in part, unless the owners amended the instruments to opt in: the sections listed in §1601-102(a), among them the lien, records and resale sections, govern what happened after January 1, 1983.
Can my condo association foreclose over unpaid fines?
Yes, the statute allows it: fines sit inside the §1603-116 lien, which is foreclosed like a mortgage, and the first mortgage stays ahead of it.
Can I back out after reading the resale certificate?
Within 5 days of receiving it, if the sale has not closed. When the certificate reaches you well before you sign, that window can close before the contract exists, so read it the day it arrives.
More for Maine buyers and sellers: closing costs in Maine, Maine homeowner insurance, selling a home in an association, what an HOA is, the Maine hub, and the neighboring New Hampshire HOA rules.